Galerie Gabriel Rolt is proud to present its first solo exhibition of works by legendary Dutch photographer Bertien van Manen. The show will feature her two most recent projects: a series of never-before-seen, black-and-white photos from her personal family archive, shot in the 1970s, along with a selection of works from the series, “Let’s sit down before we go,” color images she took in the former Soviet Union from 1991 to 2009.

Van Manen (1942) is known for her unpolished documentary-style fine art photography, which captures strangers with the kind of intimacy usually reserved for family snapshots. That’s why it’s particularly thrilling, in this exhibition, to pair a recent series of her shots from her travels with photographs that were in fact taken of her own family in the 1970s.

The black-and-white images from the ’70s feature images of her own children, climbing trees in the park, dancing with their father, and swimming nude in a lake. They reveal a beautiful sense of innocence and security from a time that was more relaxed and seemingly carefree. Van Manen recently revisited these images at the urging of her own children, who are now adults.